59 pages • 1 hour read
The Perfect Marriage
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Chapters 56-64Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 56 Summary: “Adam Morgan”
Adam is still on the run, without any cash, cards, or a phone. He convinces an employee at a road-side convenience store to let him use his cellphone. Adam calls his literary agent for help. His agent does not want to be an accessory to Adam’s crimes and hangs up on him.
Adam calls his mom next and tells Eleanor that he will meet her at her hotel later that night—he needs cash. She agrees, assuring him, “You don’t belong in that prison anyway” (293). Adam continues his walk to Rebecca’s home. Rebecca is unhappy to see Adam at her front door. Rebecca cries. Adam kisses her. Rebecca pushes him away and tells him to leave. The police arrive—Rebecca secretly called them.
Chapter 57 Summary: “Sarah Morgan”
Sarah is at work when Bob enters her office. He tells her that the police cleared him of any wrongdoing in Kelly/Jenna’s murder case. Bob had an airtight alibi, as he was in Wisconsin on the night of the murder. The police even checked his bank accounts to make sure he did not pay someone to kill Kelly/Jenna.
Sarah asks Bob why he is telling her all of this. Bob responds, “I just want to make sure we’re on the same page. We are on the same team, after all, Sarah. You know that, right?” (299). Sheriff Stevens calls to inform Sarah that Adam escaped but has been located. As Adam’s lawyer, Sarah has to go to the station.
Chapter 58 Summary: “Adam Morgan”
Adam is back at the station. This time, Adam is put in handcuffs. Sarah tells Adam that Rebecca is not really a reporter but a private investigator who was hired by Scott. Sarah is angry about Adam’s escape and tells him to stay in jail and behave until his trial.
Chapter 59 Summary: “Sarah Morgan”
Sarah gets the DNA results she requested Matthew obtain for her. She opens the envelope: “My breath catches. A small gasp escapes. My mouth curves into a grin. ‘I knew it. It’s a […] match’” (306).
Chapter 60 Summary: “Adam Morgan”
Adam’s trial commences. He watches as Sarah gives the opening statement for his case. Sarah tries to create doubt by pointing to other possible suspects: Scott, who sent Kelly/Jenna threatening texts on the night she was killed; Greg’s family, who might have wanted revenge for Greg’s death; and Jesse Hook, who was stalking Kelly/Jenna.
Sarah also points out that Kelly/Jenna had three different sets of DNA on her body when she died. Adam thinks: “It pains me to hear Kelly made into such an unlikeable subject. Disloyal, a liar, flighty, violent, a whore, and maybe even a murderer” (310). Sarah concludes her opening statement by saying, “Adam Morgan did not kill Kelly Summers” (311).
Chapter 61 Summary: “Sarah Morgan”
Adam’s trial has concluded. The verdict is in. Sarah is sitting next to Adam when the judge asks Adam to rise. The chapter ends on a cliff-hanger, with the foreperson of the jury rising and saying, “We the jury, find the defendant…” (314).
Chapter 62 Summary: “Sarah Morgan”
The narrative jumps ahead 11 years. It is the day of Adam’s execution—he was found guilty. Sarah is on her way to say goodbye: “Adam may not have murdered Kelly Summers, but he is paying for his crimes” (315).
Sarah is getting remarried tomorrow to Bob, although the identity of her new spouse will only be revealed later. Sarah and Adam have 10 minutes to talk. Adam still has some naïve hope that he might escape execution, as he asks Sarah if she has found anything more about his case. Adam brings up the third set of DNA, asking Sarah if she ever found out who it belonged to. She replies, “We went over it. There wasn’t enough evidence to bring it into court” (318).
Adam seems to accept his fate and starts crying. Sarah tells Adam she loves him, thinking, “I loved him at one point, so it’s not hard for me to mimic saying those words to him, even if they’re not true anymore” (319).
Chapter 63 Summary: “Adam Morgan”
Adam’s voice picks up the narrative, continuing the account of Sarah’s visit from his point of view. Adam asks Sarah if she has moved on romantically, and he notes that she is evasive. At one point, Sarah apologizes to Adam, saying “I’m sorry for not being a better wife to you” (322).
As Sarah is leaving, she leans forward and whispers into Adam’s ear, “I know for a fact it wasn’t you” (323). Confused, Adam asks her to clarify what she means. Sarah replies, “Adam, you will spend the rest of your very brief life thinking about me, and I want you to know that I will never think about you ever again” (324).
Adam is brought to the execution chamber. Adam describes his final moments and a final realization: “Sarah controlled everything in her life, myself included. I underestimated her. Like I did so many times before. This time it was just one too many” (326).
Chapter 64 Summary: “Sarah Morgan”
Sarah watches Adam’s execution. The only other people there are Eleanor and Kelly/Jenna’s parents. As Sarah leaves, her internal monologue reveals that she was Kelly/Jenna’s real killer. Sarah learned about Kelly/Jenna and Adam’s affair well before Kelly/Jenna’s death. Bob approached Sarah with evidence of Adam’s infidelities, which Bob discovered because he was looking for ways to destroy Kelly’s life. Bob had planned to blackmail Sarah into resigning out of embarrassment. However, Sarah explains, “My reaction was nothing like what he expected, but more than he could have ever hoped for” (330): She persuaded Bob to help kill Kelly/Jenna with her.
Sarah lays out the facts of the murder plot:
- Bob had a clear alibi because of his trip to Wisconsin.
- Sarah had a clear alibi through Anne: “That night we went out on the town, she didn’t keep track of time or her own alcohol intake” (331).
- Sarah put Rohypnol in the scotch at the lake house, trusting that Adam would drink it. This made him sleep so soundly that he slept through the murder.
- Sarah counted on Jesse as a red herring/false suspect. She knew he was infatuated with Kelly/Jenna.
- Sarah was surprised by the third set of DNA. She learned that it was Sherriff Stevens’s. This explains the Sheriff’s sloppy police work: Sheriff Stevens was eager to simply put Adam away for the crime and not have his own connection to Kelly/Jenna revealed. For example, Sheriff Stevens said there was no Rohypnol in Adam’s system, but Sarah knows that there was: “I know this because [Adam] didn’t move, not even once, when I stabbed Kelly to death” (332).
- Rebecca Sanford was a private investigator, but she was not hired by Scott. Bob hired Rebecca to keep an eye on Adam and steer him in the direction they wanted. Sarah and Bob wanted Adam to discover Bob’s connection to Kelly/Jenna, giving Adam a small sliver of hope. Sarah explains, “I wanted to remind Adam that he could only trust one person and that was me” (332).
- Scott Summers disappeared of his own accord. Sarah assumes that Scott did not want the truth about his hiding of evidence in Greg Miller’s murder case to come to light.
- Sarah does not know the truth about what happened between Kelly/Jenna and Greg, or Kelly/Jenna and Scott: “Was she a victim of the men in her life? Was she abused? Or was she a girl who cried wolf?” (332).
All these details are revealed in an internal monologue as Sarah leaves Adam’s execution. Outside, Bob is waiting for Sarah in a car. Bob asks Sarah how it went, and Sarah tells him it went as planned. Bob and Sarah kiss. In the backseat of the car is Bob and Sarah’s eight-year-old daughter, Summer. Sarah, Bob, and Summer now live in the lake house in Prince William County. Tomorrow, Bob and Sarah will get married. Matthew will walk Sarah down the aisle.
Finally, as Sarah drives away with Bob and Summer, she reveals one last bombshell through her internal monologue: “My mom didn’t kill herself in the technical sense” (334). Sarah killed her. Sarah discovered her mother with one heroin needle in her arm (not enough to kill her), presumably in an unconscious or semiconscious stupor. Sarah then stuck three more needles of heroin into her mother’s arm—enough to kill her.
Chapters 56-64 Analysis
The book’s final chapters culminate in two major plot twists. First, Sarah reveals—to both Adam and the reader—that she is the person who killed Kelly/Jenna. This pivotal plot twist illuminates all of the book’s major themes.
First, there is Fidelity Versus Deceit. In Sarah’s world, deceit—in this case, Adam’s affair—is such an unforgiveable offense that it is worthy of death, even though she herself has engaged in various forms of deceit ever since she discovered his affair. This also touches on the theme Revenge Versus Justice, as until the very end, Sarah remains committed to pursuing her own personal vendetta instead of upholding the ideal of justice she is supposed to represent as a lawyer. As Sarah states on the day of Adam’s execution, “Adam may not have murdered Kelly Summers, but he is paying for his crimes” (315, emphasis added). In depicting her framing of Adam and his subsequent death as “paying for his crimes,” Sarah suggests that justice can never be divorced from the personal for her: Adam’s betrayal is a “crime” for which he must pay, while her vengeance is, in her own mind, entirely justified. In other words, Sarah is a law unto herself—the legal system is just one more tool for her manipulation.
The theme of Power Dynamics and Gender Politics is also raised here, as it becomes clear just how hungry Sarah is for control and power. Adam’s final thoughts as he is executed speak to this fact. He realizes, “Sarah controlled everything in her life, myself included” (326, emphasis added). Sarah’s need for control has left her unable to form an equal, genuine connection, even with her own husband. In recognizing how Sarah “controlled everything,” including even him, Adam recognizes the full extent of his own helplessness. Sarah’s need to control every element of Adam’s life even extends to wanting to control his death. Sarah could have just as well not visited Adam on his execution day and let him die in peace; instead, she felt a need to let him know that she killed Kelly/Jenna and framed him. She also demurs on the question of whether or not she has moved on romantically: The existence of her six-year-old daughter by Bob, and her impending wedding the very next day, is unknown to Adam. In keeping this information from him, Sarah ensures that she remains in total control of the situation until the very end.
The second plot twist in the book’s final chapter is Sarah’s revelation that her mother did not actually die by suicide—Sarah killed her. Just as Adam’s betrayal merited his death in Sarah’s eyes, so too did her mother’s disappointing descent into heroin addiction. Sarah’s prior murder reveals a deeper pattern behind her views on Revenge Versus Justice: Sarah does not regard her murder of her mother as a crime or act of betrayal toward her mother. Instead, Sarah once more characterizes her victim as deserving of death, since her mother was weak and vulnerable and disgusted Sarah. The vulnerability of Sarah’s mother and Adam’s vulnerability mirror one another: Sarah’s mother depended entirely on Sarah’s father, while Adam depended entirely on Sarah. Both provoked disgust and, ultimately, violence from Sarah. Sarah’s desire for dominance over others therefore becomes a destructive force when met with no effective resistance.
As a final illustration of this character trait, Sarah reveals that she has named her daughter Summer—a clear allusion to Kelly Summers, whom she killed. In naming her daughter after her husband’s mistress and her own murder victim, Sarah attempts to assert total dominance over her love rival, even after Kelly/Jenna’s death. In the end, for Sarah, total dominance is the only satisfying outcome.
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